AD&M Performance Group Directors

Carrie Diamond, Founder, Artistic Director

Carrie Diamond, Founder, Artistic Director

Carrie Diamond, President, AD&M and Executive and Artistic Director of The Dance Hub; Artistic Director, AD&M Performance Group, is a 2019 Recipient of the Apogee Award for Excellence in Education. Her lifelong interest in dance developed early on by the mentorship of three individuals: Don Hewitt (ballet), Marilyn Allen Suleiman (choreography), and Virginia Storie-Crawford (modern dance). She later trained with Cecchetti master teacher, Margaret Craske, and such luminaries as Lawrence Rhodes, David Howard, and Benjamin Harkarvy. She danced professionally in New York City for over fifteen years and holds an M.F.A from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating, she founded New American Ballet Ensemble, a New York City company that promoted new music and choreography. She was an instructor for the Alvin Ailey School, the 92nd Street YM/YWHA, Peridance, and Marymount Manhattan College. In Santa Barbara, Ms. Diamond co-founded American Dance and Music in 2006 with Eric Valinsky, where she directed the AD&M Studio, AD&M Performance Group, and Moving To Learn, a curricular dance program for elementary school children. In 2017, the AD&M board of directors opened The Dance Hub, a thriving community dance space where Ms. Diamond serves as the executive and artistic director and principal ballet teacher for adults of all levels and ages. She is dedicated to bringing as many people as possible into and back to dance at The Dance Hub, whether they are 18 months or 84 years old.

Eric Valinsky, Music Director

Eric Valinsky, Music Director

A native Manhattanite, Eric Valinsky has, for more years than he would like to admit, maintained dual careers in computer systems architecture and music. He was educated at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Illinois, finally achieving his DMA in music composition from Columbia University. He studied composition with Walter Aschaffenburg, Salvatore Martirano, Jack Beeson, and Darius Milhaud; piano with Sara Crawford Drogheo and Emil Danenberg; and conducting with Harold Farberman. While living in Los Angeles, he became music director and composer-in-residence or The Storie-Crawford Dance Theatre Ensemble. Returning to New York, he served in a similar capacity for Danny Buraczeski’s Jazzdance, Uris Bahr and Dancers, and The New American Ballet Ensemble as well as composer-in-residence for The Rachel Harms Dance Company, Opera Uptown, and the Dance Department at City College of New York. He currently moonlights as founder and partner of Inlineos LLC, a strategic Internet consulting company. He is also President of the Santa Barbara Music Club.